


Remember.

by rayjayway



Category: Midnight Poppyland
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:47:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24437659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayjayway/pseuds/rayjayway
Summary: I wrote this for another creative contest on Facebook, this week the theme was:“You didn’t think I’d forget did you?”I hope you like it 🥰
Comments: 19
Kudos: 52





	Remember.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: obviously we don’t know much at all about Joe, but his back story intrigues me. Did he help shape Toras more respectful, sweet side? I get the feeling that he’s this big gentle giant who helped keep Tora out of trouble as much as he could, even if it meant looking the other way despite being a cop.  
> So this is all complete speculation until we find out more about him, anyway I hope you enjoy it (:

“You not openin’ up today?” Tora grumbled, shaking off the raindrops still clinging to his clothes despite having entered the small restaurant several minutes ago. The rain outside had lashed at him mercilessly, the wind helping it to soak it through each layer of his clothing so that they clung to him, cold and heavy. He figured the weather was fitting for a day like this--it was almost like the sky, itself, had marked the date with an empathetic squall. Tendrils of damp hair smattered his face and he wiped them away with his sleeve before reaching across the counter. Alice had always kept her best serving cloths there at the beginning of a shift, freshly laundered and stacked in neat squares for easy access, so he took advantage of them to dab away some of the icy water still dripping from his hair.

Not moments later, she emerged from the back, having been summoned by the noise of the sliding door despite the roaring tempest right outside. She first glared at him and then at the towel, snatching it from his hand and swatting it at his head, though her height allowed her to do little more than flap it uselessly against his broad chest, instead. “That ain’t what these are for! You wanna shake around like a wet dog and use up towels you go to your own place.” He raised his hands up, placating as she took a deep drag on her vape pen, smoke hanging around her like a gloomy cloud. “What are you doing here anyway? Ain’t like you to call in this early.”  
He eyed her cautiously before creeping past her tiny, hunched frame to stand behind the bar, reaching up high for the bottle of sake she kept in the cupboard. The woman wasn’t much to look at, but Tora knew from years of experience that she could unwind like a viper if the urge took her. It mattered little to her whether he was the Tiger of Ares Street or simply Tora, The Help--she’d let him have it, either way.  
“Don’t know why ya insist on keeping the good stuff up there when ya can’t even reach it.” From another shelf he grabbed two small glasses before returning to the other side of the bar and pouring them both a measure. He paused for a few seconds as he eyeballed her glass, then added a second heavy pour to her serving.  
Holding up his glass to her he nodded his head over to the photo of Joe hanging on the wall.

**_“You didn’t think I’d forget did ya?”_ **

Alices’ eyes grew glassy with tears behind the thick frames, threatening to spill over but they never did; he watched as she diligently blinked them back in her ever-stoic fashion. She tapped her glass softly against his and they both drank in silence, grateful at least for each others company. 

The date marked eight years to the day since Joe's death, when Tora had clung, weeping, to his lifeless body in a dank, dirty alleyway. Eight years since he had tried desperately to stop the warm crimson from flowing endlessly out of the bullet wound and soaking through his clothing, staining his trembling hands as he pressed down on the wound in vain.  
Death wasn’t new to him, at this early point in his life he’d already seen plenty of it but never so close. This was the first time he had witnessed the light go out of someones’ eyes, but it would be far from the last.  
The colour in Joes’ face had drained, fading to white, his breathing had become little more than a rattling rasp, and yet through it all he had remained perfectly calm. 

Each second of the memory was burned into Toras mind, as vivid now as the day it had happened. The sound of Joes’ voice still just as clear, telling him to stop panicking, that everything was going to be okay, who to call and above all, to take his ring back to his ma. “Hey kid, did ya hear that? Don’t you forget to tell her that I love her.”

It was the death that had always weighed heaviest on Toras conscience. He hadn’t been on patrol at the time and his shift had ended hours earlier, but talks of a brewing clan war and missing younger Balthuman members had sent him out looking for his young ward.  
Around midnight Tora had finally crept away from the flashing lights and police, none of them had probed too deeply, the clan tattoo on his neck already pulling enough sway to excuse him from the bulk of the questioning. Miserably he slunk back to the bar and knocked at the door, fully prepared that Alice would never forgive him. He had sucked in a sharp breath, bracing himself for the moment where she would take one look at him covered in blood and clutching her sons ring, unable to speak through the sobs that wracked through him and turn him away. Instead she had taken his hand in hers, bony and wrinkled, unfazed by the blood and slid the ring down onto his finger.  
Then, like no one else had ever done in his life, she had pulled him into the tightest embrace and held him while silent tears fell down both of their cheeks.


End file.
